


Kids These Days...

by Trubbishly



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Looker is tired give him a break, More characters briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 04:54:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10550400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trubbishly/pseuds/Trubbishly
Summary: When Looker reminisces about the talented children who helped him in his dangerous Interpol missions, Anabel suggests he might be better off leaving the Interpol all together.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a short one chapter one shot, but here we are. I'm not fond of this fic at all so far (I'm terrible at dialogue). However, I hope somebody enjoys it. I think poor Looker needs a break.

Mission complete! Job well done, Looker.

Looker returned the coffee maker to its spot next to the fridge. Sure, it wasn’t a big deal, but he certainly believed his accomplishment deserved at least a bit of praise. It had taken him three hours, a box of toothpicks, and whole lot of experimenting to unclog that old machine. His hands now smelled heavily of coffee grinds and he didn’t expect it to rub off any time soon. A job well done, indeed. 

Just as Looker bent down to mop up the stray grounds, the apartment door creaked open. He leapt up. His boss, Anabel, had returned with groceries and a wad of paper and envelopes. From Headquarters. He’d recognize those manila folders and embellished black stamps anywhere. Looker eyed them cautiously as she threw them on the counter with the grocery bags. 

“Looker, what in the world are you doing?”

Her confused and humored voice pulled him away from the letters and he blinked twice, following her gaze to his suspiciously splayed legs that attempted to block out the mess on the floor. Of course she would notice! She was too clever to be fooled by his feigned casualness. Anabel could see through even the toughest agents’ intentions, especially the hard boiled Looker.

Looker stood up straight, “Ah, so you’ve noticed my strategically placed coffee grounds. Pardon my mess, but you as you see, I have fixed the coffee machine!”

“Oh, you have!” Anabel said delightedly, circling around the counter to get a good look. “I’ve been dying for a good cup of coffee.” She reached up and started fishing around the cabinet for fresh coffee grounds.

Looker noticed she had put her hair in a messy braid. He was used to her well-groomed pony tails, but no matter the style, he found her wavy lavender hair quite charming. The two of them had been acting and dressing increasingly more casual around each other as time went on. Anabel was wearing jeans and a blue wishiwashi tee-shirt. Breaks between missions had never lasted this long, and he was becoming so fond of Anabel and of Alola that he felt quite miserable at the thought of leaving. At least, he reminded himself, Anabel was his boss. He wouldn’t have to leave her permanently like he had to with so many others. Then again, he wouldn’t be in the same apartment as her. 

Instead of dwelling on that, he asked a question, “Do you know what those letters from Headquarters are about?” 

“It’s none of your concern,” she said calmly. Realizing that may have sounded rude, she turned around to look at him, “They were addressed only to me. I’m sorry, Looker, but I can’t say.”

Looker nodded solemnly, closing his eyes. He understood, but it still worried him. Whirring noises signaled the coffee machine was awake and working, and he listened to Anabel pour the fragrant grounds into a filter. It was best if he found some busy work to do. Looker was a little more sensitive than he liked to be for a hardboiled detective. 

Clapping his hands together suddenly, he announced, “All this fixing and cleaning has given me a burst of motivation! I’m off to clean the rooms!” And with that, he finished mopping the kitchen floor and waltzed off. Anabel smiled and shook her head as she watched him go.  
He hadn’t realized how messy his desk had gotten until he started digging through it. Newspaper clippings, pencils, and the descriptions of the UB were scattered across the desk. 

Slowly, he sorted all of his pencils, highlighters, and pens under the desk light. He wondered why he hadn’t shredded the UB descriptions yet. That had certainly been the most classified mission he had taken on in recent years. It would be safer to have that information erased, so he piled them up to be shredded later. He shook his head and sighed. It wasn’t safe to be so sentimental about his missions.

In the drawers of the desk, he held whatever info he was allowed to keep from his old missions. Most of papers he kept were from abandoned missions or small cases: missing children, wanted criminals, things that had lost the public interest. Looker wasn’t one to leave things incomplete. He searched for relating news stories and added newspaper clippings, no matter how vague, to the old files. It was like he felt bad for the missions. They were forgotten, and it made Looker feel sour about how dismissive the Interpol could be. 

Carefully putting away news clippings in their respective files, Looker stumbled upon his most sentimental folder. It had no black stamp or classified markings. It was plain and it belonged to Looker alone. He opened it with a reluctant nostalgia, and a smile flooded across his face when he saw the first picture. A grinning girl and boy and a blank-faced cat looked up at him. Why was it always kids and teenagers who ended up helping him on his missions? They were all so determined and talented, he supposed. Most of them even had the assistance of legendary monsters. They must’ve been really something to have that sort of power on their side.

But, children were the easiest to get attached to. They were the last ones he wanted getting involved in some dangerous mission. Looker put the folder on his desk and slumped into his chair. He pulled out picture after picture, spreading them out. It was impossible to forget all the friends and wonderful kids he met on his missions. He wondered if Anabel or Nanu or any of the other Interpol members ever missed all the people they had to leave behind.

Anabel came through the door and startled Looker again. She was balancing two cups of coffee. One was placed next to Looker at his desk. The other, she sipped as she looked over his shoulder. 

“You sure have run into a lot of kids during your missions,” she remarked. “Unless I’m missing something.”

“Yeah, Moon wasn’t the first to help out the Interpol,” Looker said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Anabel pointed out a picture with her free hand. Three kids wrapped up in coats were about to lob snowballs at the camera. “They look really young.”

“No younger than Moon,” Looker remarked. “That’s Dawn, Barry, and Lucas. Accidentally dragged them into that Team Galactic nonsense when they figured out I was a secret agent.”

Anabel chuckled, “You’re not hard to figure out.”

“Hey! They were clever, slippery little kids,” retorted Looker, only half joking. “Those three rascals were only twelve at the time. Took the whole thing in leaps and bounds, I tell you.”

“I’m really surprised Moon handled the whole UB disaster so well. She’s only eleven!” Anabel sighed and massaged her forehead, “I honestly feel awful we had to drag her into it, but she’s the most talented trainer in the region.”

Looker nodded sympathetically, “That’s usually why it happened, except with Dawn, Barry, and Lucas. They were newcomers to battling when I met them. The three of them almost got trapped distortion world. Thank Arceus Champion Cynthia was there to help.”

“Geez,” Anabel muttered. “And look where we are now. We’re still using minors to help us.”

Both of them studied the faces on the desk for a silent moment. Dim yellow light and the smell of coffee made it feel so much like studying a mission briefing that it made Looker grimace. He was tired of missions and tired of putting children in danger. 

“There’s better light in the kitchen,” Looker stated briskly as he swept the photographs back into the folder and shuffled out the door with his coffee. Anabel wordlessly acknowledged him by flicking out the dull lamp and walking out behind him.

Clean, crisp spring light filtered in through a small square window above the sink. It still reeked of coffee, but the airy brightness of the room made it bearable. Opening up the folder again, Looker leaned over the counter. It was obvious Anabel was still curious about the photos. Her braid dangled as she put her elbows on the table and peered down at the contents of the folder. Looker was always willing to tell stories of his encounters, especially since he had always kept them to himself. He was glad to have someone to confide in. 

Still, it was always polite to ask. “Do you want me to tell you more about them? I’m sure you’ve had more interesting missions.”

“Says the man who stopped Team Galactic from destroying the universe,” Anabel pointed out. “I want to hear more, but only if you feel up to it.”

Looker agreed with a nod. He began to talk and only hoped his emotions would hold out. It wasn’t easy to feign stoniness around Anabel.  
“So, about Dawn, Lucas, and Barry…”

The three of them were best friends. Dawn and Barry had been friends since childhood. Since she was four, Dawn had told Looker, she and Barry had planned to start their adventure together. They made quite a dynamic pair. While Barry was chatty and hyper-active, Dawn was reserved and patient. She had an insatiable hunger for mythology. Her knowledge on mythos rivaled even that of Champion Cynthia.

“You should have seen the look on her face when Cynthia asked for her help,” Looker explained, “She idolized that woman.”

Anabel laughed, “Who doesn’t?”

Barry’s bright yellow hair and colorful outfit choices said plenty about his personality. He was excitable, curious, loud, but all around a loyal and reliable friend. As the son of an esteemed battle frontier member, he was constantly trying to better his battling strength. His busyness kept him away from most of the Galactic business.  
Lucas was the newest addition to the friend group. By far the most serious of the three, he constantly had to ground the imagination of Dawn and curiosity of Barry. His years under Professor Rowan had turned him into quite an encyclopedia on Pokemon knowledge. Lucas became quite the little strategist for the group.

“The thing is, their personalities were so outstanding that the three lake guardians took an interest in them.” Looker found himself sighing as he spoke, “This is when I knew there was no turning back with those three. I needed to protect them in order to keep Team Galactic from hurting them to get at the guardians.”

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault they got involved,” Anabel noted as she drank down the last of her coffee. 

“No,” Looker agreed, sliding his coffee cup across the counter. It was making his mouth bitter. “Luckily, Sinnohan blood runs in their veins. They handled Galactic’s threats well. Boy, could Dawn’s empoleon pack a punch.”

“Wasn’t there a bombing involved?” Anabel asked cautiously.

She only got a nod in response. Looker decided he would move on from Sinnoh. Thinking about the look on the friends’ faces after the explosions wasn’t pleasant. Neither was thinking about the moment they realized Barry had been injured by the debris. Quickly, he pulled another picture from the folder.

It was a teenage girl with a messy pony tail. Her blue eyes were striking against darker skin and the taunting grin on her face was as intimidating as it was confident. 

“That would be Hilda Gödel, Hero of Ideals.” 

Hilda held that title with pride. Even though she was known for acquiring it through force rather than choice, she took it in leaping strides. Anyone with a giant lightening shooting dragon would feel confident. Looker explained that she had willingly taken part in his task force for a time. However, she seemed more determined to sabotage the mission rather than help it.

“Why in the world would she do that?” Anabel questioned, quite baffled by the foolishness of it.

“She wanted the information we had, but she didn’t want us to succeed,” Looker told her, “She wanted to do it herself.”

“That’s stuck up,” Anabel scoffed. She sunk deeper into her elbows and said to her subordinate, “You should’ve kicked her out of the team. Honestly, Looker.”

Looker put a hand to his hair, letting out a laugh. “Oh, but she had her reasons. She was also the strongest trainer we had.”

“Ah, yes. The usual excuse,” Anabel mused.

The task force was in charge of tracking down a wanted criminal. His name was N, and he was responsible for awakening the other legendary dragon and sieging the Unova League. Anabel nodded solemnly, recognizing the name and event. The damage from the fallout of the attack costed a fortune. That, along with threats he made towards Champion Alder, were going to get him jailed for a long time once he was caught. Hilda was convinced he shouldn’t go to jail.

“I don’t know much about this case, but Hilda was the one who fought him and took him down. She wanted him to be stopped,” Anabel injected.

“To us, N was the most mysterious of enigma. To Hilda, he was a friend. She knew much more about him than we did,” Looker sounded sorry as he explained this to her. “She knew his interests and understood his behavior. Eventually, she opened up and told us that N had been manipulated and locked up for fifteen years. Of course she didn’t want him locked up again.”

Anabel was distant, “Talk about withheld information.”

Looker frowned with frustration. “I knew at this point I needed to stop the mission from continuing. We had already jailed six of the seven sages, and I don’t know why information on N had been withheld. I contacted Alder and he said that he was responsible for the confusion. When I confronted Headquarters about it”-  
He clammed up. Why did he bring up this topic around his boss of all people? 

“What happened?” She sounded genuinely concerned. Her voice held the sincerity that no Interpol member should rightly have.

“It was a mistake. Alder had already stepped down from his Champion’s position and no one believed my information. I was removed from the mission because I was getting ‘too emotional’. I went rogue for a while and tried to get more information, but there was an accident and I…lost my Pokemon.” Looker scolded himself for not shutting up sooner. He’d gone too deep.

Anabel put a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. She suggested with complete seriousness, “Looker, why don’t you just drop out of the Interpol?”


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anabel knows the Interpol isn't the best place for Looker. He knows it too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so now this half is too SHORT. I should've just waited until today and posted the whole thing together. The end is sort of open ended... that's the best kind of ending, I think.

“Me? Quit?” Looker squawked. He was quite taken aback by the words that came out of his bosses mouth and his eyes widened in surprise. “No, no. Non merci. No grazie. There’s no way.”

Watching his shock, Anabel was temporarily confused, and then nodded when she understood and picked up her empty mug in her hands. She studied the edges of the plain white cup as if some imperfection on it displeased her. “That was incredibly rude of me,” she said sorely, “It’s just…Looker, if the Interpol is treating you so…”

“So what?” Looker didn’t want her to continue, but he knew he couldn’t stop her. If he had learned anything on this vacation, it was that she was too kindly and willing to help.

“So,” she paused, wishing there was still more coffee in her cup, “poorly.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Looker laughed insecurely, shuffling the pictures around like a strewn set of playing cards. “The Interpol treats my fine, I enjoy my work. I like all the traveling. Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of traveling?” It was easiest to crack under the pressure of another Interpol member. They could be trusted, couldn’t they?

“Looker, spying is a serious job. It’s not just about traveling. It’s dangerous work, I understand if you don’t”-

“Of course I understand that,” he stated quickly and reassuringly, brushing off the end of her sentence with a nervous sweeping of his hand. “Detective work is my life.”

“But it’s not just about that either!” Anabel continued. “It’s about risking your life and physical and emotional strength and”-she gestured out the window to the blue Alolan sky-“aliens, apparently.”

He found himself grinning over this. Aliens were a bit much. 

“And maybe… maybe your just an everyday local detective kind of guy,” she suggested with a shrug.

She immediately realized what she said sounded demeaning. A pouty scowl crossed her face and her shoulders stiffened. Looker wanted to be upset, angry even, but he couldn’t be. What she implied wasn’t wrong. He was rather soft, and his strong sense of justice and morality made some of his missions too difficult. His mission in Unova attested to this.

“I am absolutely alright! You’re right, you know,” sighed Looker. His eyes watched the corner of the counter.

“Oh Looker, I’m so sorry. That sounded awful, didn’t it?”

“No, no,” he waved her off. “The truth is, I’ve been fighting the idea to quit for a very long time. I want to, but I don’t want to. It is hard to understand, is it not?”

“As your boss, Looker, I’m here to help you do your best,” Anabel reassured him with professional confidence, “You’ve done wonderful work for the Interpol.”

Looker was beaming, and possibly blushing, at the compliment. Looker, hardboiled detective, master of disguise, never stopped until his job was done.

“But, the potential you have is not exactly something the Interpol is looking for. In my opinion, you deserve better treatment.” She sighed and started to pick at her fuzzy braid, “That’s not under my power, unfortunately.”

Looker nodded solemnly. He knew that. He always knew he would never get higher in the ranks. He knew he would often be treated like a pawn or an assistant. Even though he was always in the right place at the right time, saving the world, he just never did it in the right way. Not in the way the Interpol wanted. He was clever, but too obvious. An agent had to be stone cold and serious. He was very serious, but apparently not enough. Not when his moral compass got in the way.

“If whatever truly makes you happy is away from the Interpol,” Anabel said softly as she pulled a photo from the pile; it was the picture of Calem and Emma and the blank faced cat, “then go there and live your life.”

Looker had told Anabel all about Calem and Emma before. The two of them were from his most recent mission, before Alola, and Looker missed them greatly. He had taken Emma and her pet espurr off the streets and taught her how to read. She was a fast learner and even faster on her feet. She knew the back allies of the grand capitol of Kalos like the back of her hand. Calem became his student, a detective-in-training. Even with little money to spend, Looker had taken them in and cared for them. Calem declined his generosity and paid for his own expenses. And Emma, well, she felt terrible about Looker’s financial situation.

If only he had known. She had willingly given herself up for scientific experiments. It was shady, shady business, and he had realized too late what was happening. She was being used by the very man he had come to Kalos to arrest. Emma was safe now, running the detective agency with Calem. But, that wasn’t before she had been manipulated to do crime by some frightening robotic hardware while she was unconscious. Yes, the whole thing had been nasty business. Looker felt guilty. Of course he did, as any responsible guardian, as any good father figure should. Leaving this girl, no, more than anything else she was his daughter, to finish his mission only added to his guilt. 

He took the picture from Anabel’s hand and smiled at her. Anabel lips creased into a small grin. In the picture, Calem and Emma smiled too. This unforgettable and unexpected family he had acquired from his time in the Interpol smiled together with him. He’d give the Interpol that much. It wasn’t as lonely a journey as he thought. Even if he couldn’t be with all of them at once, they would always hold an important place in his thoughts.

Putting the picture back among its companions and closing the folder, still smiling, he considered her offer, “I’ll think about it.”


End file.
